She disappeared silently through the door before which they had been standing, and after a few moments returned in a brilliant red tippet which she had crossed over her breast and tied in a knot behind. Now that she had awakened to the fact that her half-clothed condition shocked him, she began to be ashamed of even her naked arms, which she had no means of concealing. She kept them folded behind her back, and crept into the darkest corner of the pa.s.sage.
"Did they refuse to bury the _gnadiger Herr_?" he demanded.
"No-no-one said anything," she answered, "because I never asked."
"Why not?"
"Because I couldn"t for the stones that were hurled at me. And then I thought it was no good. n.o.body would ever come and fetch him. I might as well shovel him in myself, as best I could."
"_You_ proposed to do it! Without help?"
"If I could carry him from the Cats" Bridge into the house without help, I ought to be able to bury him too."
"Where--in the churchyard?"
"The churchyard? Ha! ha! That would have been a pretty piece of business. I should never have got him through the village and been alive afterwards to tell the tale. It was in the garden, over by the Castle. I was in the middle of digging the grave when the _Herr_ arrived."
Now he felt strongly inclined to praise her. Such canine fidelity, unquestioning, unhesitating, touched him deeply. Did not the girl who had faced death readily a thousand times for her master"s sake, deserve some sort of reward? Yes. He would repay her in coin; good hard cash would doubtless be more acceptable than anything else, poor thing! And, directly he had laid his father in his last resting-place, he would dismiss her from his service. Till then she might stay where she was.
But, at all costs, his father"s bones must lie with those of his ancestors. His first duty, his bounden duty as a son, was to procure for him a decent burial, such as was granted to every Christian human being. No matter what difficulties might stand in the way, he determined to accomplish the sacred task, even if he were driven to resort to extreme measures, and call in the aid of the law. He knew at least one magistrate in Prussia, a relative of his mother"s, who would take his side, and enforce justice with an armed contingent if the worst came to the worst.
He was just in the act of walking off in the direction of the village, when it occurred to him that it was impossible to take a hundred steps on his own property without being snared into a hundred death-traps.
Without the woman he detested to guide him, he was as helpless as a child.
"Lead me to the drawbridge," he said; "and while I am gone clear away all the traps."
"Yes, _Herr_."
But she remained motionless, as if rooted to the spot.
"What are you waiting for?"
"I beg the _Herr"s_ pardon, but he has been travelling all night, and I thought----"
"What did you think?"
"That the _Herr_ must be very tired, and hungry perhaps; and----"
She was right He could hardly stand from sheer exhaustion. But the idea of taking even a crust from her hands filled him with loathing. Rather would he be fed by his enemies.
CHAPTER V
Meanwhile in the Black Eagle a group of Schrandeners, burghers and burghers" sons, were enjoying their morning pint together. The Schrandeners, who had always thought the ideal of a happy life was to spend as much time as possible in the tavern, were now at liberty to indulge their taste from morning to night. What work they did must have been accomplished very early in the day, judging by the hour at which they began their recreation.
Young Merckel presided at their carousals. He had grown up into a fine, broad-shouldered young fellow, with a cavalry moustache aggressively curled up at the ends, which suited his cast of countenance, and a manner, that even in bouts of clownish dissipation retained a certain swaggering _bonhomie_. At the conclusion of the war, instead of getting his discharge, he had come home on leave, to consider at his ease whether or not it would be advisable to attach himself to a standing army. His profession was not likely to interfere with his decision one way or the other, as practically he had none.
Till his twenty-fourth year he had been employed in "seeing life" in different parts of the world at his father"s expense, and had hailed with joy the outbreak of war as a legitimate outlet for his energy, which otherwise might have been turned into unworthy channels.
Like Baumgart he had entered the army as a volunteer Jager; like him had pa.s.sed into the militia and had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant, but unlike him, he wore as a recognition of his bravery the iron cross dangling on his proudly swelling breast. For the time being, he had no intention of leaving his birthplace again, where he was perfectly content to be regarded in the light of a hero and a lion.
He drank, bl.u.s.tered, and helped to fan the flame of hate against the traitor, hate which since the return of the victorious soldiers had blazed up more fiercely than ever. At his instigation the Schrandeners had gone forth to destroy the Cats" Bridge in order to cut the baron off, on his island. That he would be struck dead before their very eyes none in their boldest dreams had dared to hope, and without having achieved their mission they had hurried back to the village to proclaim the glad tidings.
It was a foregone conclusion that the man who had betrayed his country would be refused Christian burial. This would put the crown on their work of vengeance. They gloried in reflecting on it. The mayor was on their side; the parson appeared to shut his eyes to what was going on; and there was no reason to be afraid of the interference of higher authority.
That a champion of the dead would arise at the eleventh hour was the last thing any one expected.
For the _Junker_--G.o.d alone knew what had become of the _Junker_--had he not totally disappeared, probably to die of shame in a distant land?...
"There"s some one coming, wearing a Landwehr cap," said Felix Merckel, looking out through a crack in the blinds on to the market-place, which lay glaring and dusty in the heat of the mid-day sun.
The sounds of revelry subsided, in expectation of the advent of a stranger. Felix Merckel stretched out his legs and began to toy indifferently with his medal.
The door swung back. The new-comer brought a momentary stream of sunlight into the cool, darkened room. Without a word of greeting he walked to the buffet, behind which a barmaid sat knitting a stocking, and inquired if he could speak a few words with the mayor. The mayor was not at home; he had just gone out into the fields, the barmaid told him.
Herr Merckel was fond of leaving the inn in charge of his son, for he found the beer disappeared twice as fast from the barrels when he was not present. Felix adopted a method of stimulating customers to drink, which would not have been becoming in the host. He couched his invitations in military slang and in figures of speech learnt in the camp; to resist them would, the Schrandeners held, be casting a slight on their lieutenant, so it followed that Felix was the means of adding treasure to his father"s exchequer.
He was piqued at the stranger in the Landwehr cap not vouchsafing him a salute, although he must have seen the officer"s badge on his coat, and determined to ignore him.
"Can I wait here till the mayor comes back?" the stranger asked.
"Of course. This is the tap-room," the barmaid replied.
He took a seat in the farthest corner from the topers, with his back turned to them, put down his knapsack, and bowed his head in his hands.
Herr Felix regarded such conduct as a kind of challenge to himself.
Like the true son of his father, he was indignant at a stranger coming in and ordering nothing to drink.
"Ask the gentleman, Amalie, what he will take," he called out, bursting with a sense of his own importance. Apparently the stranger didn"t hear, for he took no notice. The barmaid stood behind his chair and stammered something about the excellent quality of Schrandener beer.
"Thank you; I will drink nothing," he replied, without looking up.
Herr Felix twisted with vigour the ends of his moustache. It was clear that a rebuke must be administered to the stranger for his churlish behaviour. He therefore rose to his feet, and swinging his tankard, began in a somewhat blatant tone to address his boon-companions.
"Dear comrades and fellow-burghers and every one present, Prussia"s glorious battles have been fought. Our beloved Fatherland has risen from the dust in new and unsuspected splendour. Most of us have bled on the field of glory, and felt the enemy"s bullets pierce our breast.
Whoever is a true Prussian patriot will now drink with me his country"s health and honour!"
With high-pitched hurrahs, the mugs with one accord were lifted to the revellers" mouths, but before they could drink, an incisive "Halt!"
from the lieutenant stopped them.
"I see there is some one here," he cried, "who seems inclined to shirk this sacred duty;" and he rose and walked with clanking spurs across the room to the stranger"s table.
"Sir," he asked aggressively, "do I understand you don"t wish to drink to Prussia"s fame and glory?"
"I wish to be left in peace," answered the stranger, not turning round.